Long Term Effects of Tropical Deforestation by Michelle Swanson

(umt.edu)

Deforestation has been occurring throughout history but has become a current issue within the last 50 years.  Deforestation is the act of permanently destructing forests in order to use that land for other purposes.  It occurs around the world but is more prevalent within the tropical forests.  Currently, forests cover 30% of the world’s land mass, and about half of the world’s tropical forests have already been cleared.  If the current deforestation rates continue, the world’s rainforests could be completely gone in as little as 100 years.  This is an issue that has lasting impacts on the earth, the species that live in these tropical forests, and human beings. Slash-and-burn is one technique used to clear the land.  This technique still leaves the soil with some nutrients left in it so that the land can be repurposed, but this soil soon becomes useless and the process will continue with another piece of land within the tropical rainforest.  This technique of deforestation quickly kills of the wildlife living in these areas to the point where they cannot be recovered in the future.  When you kill off wildlife living in these areas, it will drastically affect the food webs within the rainforests.

                Deforestation also affects the earth because when you no longer have trees to stabilize the soil around them, you start to create soil erosion.  The erosion of soil will eventually result in vegetation growth problems.  You can also experience flooding and landslide issues due to deforestation.  These problems are currently happening in Haiti due to deforestation.  This soil erosion can also make its way to streams and lakes.  This can decrease the quality of that water.

                Lastly, deforestation can drastically impact the climate.  It is said to be one of the contributing factors to global climate change.  When a tree is cut down and dies, it releases the carbon that is stored inside of it and carbon dioxide is put back into the atmosphere.  When you look at this on a large scale it can become evident that this will create long term problems for the climate.

                This issue relates to ecology because deforestation involves the issue of changing food chains due to extinction of species.  It affects species that coexist with the species that are dying off.   If deforestation continues at the rate that it is currently at, the rainforests will quickly vanish and will affect the rest of the world with its long term effects.  Of course it is necessary to reverse deforestation but that is easier said than done.  In the article, it states that replanting trees essentially will not make a difference but in my opinion, I think that anything can help at this point.  I don’t think that people think this is as big of an issue as it really is and I think it is necessary to get people’s attention about it.  As humans, we are the only ones who can stop deforestation and we need to make more of an effort to make that happen.

Sources:

http://www.livescience.com/27692-deforestation.html

http://www.umt.edu/ethics/debating%20science%20program/odc/climatechange/climatealternatives/reduceddeforestation.php